on the Coming Civilization. 385 



property, they present a practical problem most difficult to 

 solve. But, so far as possible, every man ought to have 

 access to, and use of, all these things, and so unhampered 

 opportunity. 



The third will .take me a little longer to tell. A man 

 becomes more a man by as much as his permanent wants 

 become more and higher. So long as he wants only food, 

 clothing and shelter, he is but a higher kind of animal. As 

 his higher nature unfolds, and he wants books and music 

 and art, then only does he become, in the higher sense of 

 the word, human. But before he can be developed into 

 really wanting these, he must have, at least, some leisure: 

 for this kind of culture requires time. Children, then, must 

 not be allowed to be put to daily labor, or at any rate, to 

 more than half-day work, until they have been properly 

 schooled and taught. And not only this, men and women, 

 if they are to live, and so maintain, this higher life, must 

 have some time to read and think, to breathe the air of art, 

 and to listen to music. They must have time to mingle 

 with their fellows in what we call society. Is it not these 

 higher things that we mean when we speak of living? 

 Take from us our society, our books, our pictures, our stat- 

 uary, our music, with all that these imply, and would we 

 care much to keep the rest ? If this be so, is not what is 

 necessary to the real human life of ourselves necessary to 

 all ? In so far as they are men and women, it most certainly 

 is. 



If, now, we are wise believers in Evolution, it has taught 

 us one thing ; and that is that the world advances not by 

 leaps, but by the method of growth. So we shall not expect 

 everything, or too much, all at once. If we can take the 

 next step, we shall do well. This next step on the part of 

 the great army of wage-workers, I believe, with Mr. George 

 Gunton, to be shorter hours of daily labor. I incline to 

 think that he has wrought out this problem from the point 

 of view of political economy. 



Fewer hours of labor would mean the employment of 

 the unemployed; and so the removing of the burden of 

 their support from the overloaded shoulders of the workers. 

 The more wage-earners there are, the more consumers ; so 

 it would cause a widening of the market of the world. With 

 ever more and better machinery, along with the education 

 of the laborer, and so the increase of his skill, there might 



